Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
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(The Nosher via JTA)—Every year I create a new latke recipe for the Chanukah season. Potatoes are so last year, but inspiring roots and vegetables is the trend now. Plantain chips are among my favorite treats; put a bag in front of me, and it’s over. I blame my East Coast childhood for my addiction to Latin flavors. Sweet and salty plantains, deep flavors of paprika and sazon, and rice and beans are all my jam. So with my deep love affair with Latin cuisine, I took this idea as inspiration for this year’s latke creation. Plantains fry up beaut... Full story
Chanukah is almost here!... "Twas the night before Chanukah, boichiks and maidels, Not a sound could be heard, not even the dreidels, The menorah was set by the chimney alight, In the kitchen, the Bubbe was hopping a bite, Salami, Pastrami, a glaisele tay, And zoyere pickles mit bagels... Oy Vay! Gezint and geschmock the kinderlach felt, While dreaming of taiglach and Chanukah gelt, And Bubbe was carving a shtickele chicken, A tummel arose, like the wildest K'duchas, Santa had fallen right on... Full story
ZICHRON YAAKOV, Israel (JTA)-Kobi Ifrach stood on a stage in England wearing nothing but gold body paint, a Speedo and an Israeli flag. He had just become the first Israeli to win the Junior Mr. Universe bodybuilding competition. Back home in this northern Israeli town, Ifrach's haredi Orthodox parents were cheering him on. Days earlier they had lit Shabbat candles and prayed for his victory. Ifrach, 20, left the path of strict Jewish observance during high school and now abides instead by the s... Full story
They are two elderly gentlemen in their 90s who like to wear WWII veteran caps and go out for breakfast together on a regular basis. The two are Art Witkov, (my father), and Norm Bercoon. Their longtime friendship dates back to before the war. Art and Norm were high school graduates when they met at the N. Shure Company, located on Adams Street in Chicago. The two of them were both new employees, hired at the not-very-robust-wage of 35 cents an hour. My dad and Norm were among many who filled... Full story
AMSTERDAM (JTA)-Though they are considered a caloric hazard in Israel, sufganiyot are a rare Chanukah treat for many Jews in Europe. When the holiday arrives, some Jewish communities in Russia, Ukraine and beyond arrange special community bakes. This keeps schools and kindergartens in supply of the jam-filled doughnuts that Jews deep-fry on Chanukah in celebration of the legend involving the miraculous use of oil during the Maccabean revolt. Other communities arrange for shipments from Israel... Full story
NEW YORK (JTA)-The opening number in the Broadway musical "Falsettos"-currently being revived on Broadway at the Walter Kerr Theatre-is called "Four Jews in a Room Bitching." Featuring sample lyrics like "I'm neurotic, he's neurotic, they're neurotic, we're neurotic. Bitch, bitch, bitch, bitch," it immediately places the audience in the often humorous environment of Jewish neuroses and self-deprecation. "The people I know are kind of neurotic and very funny and quick-witted, and that's what I... Full story
JERUSALEM (JTA)-Burger King restaurants in Israel have introduced a donut burger for the Chanukah season. The SufganiKing is a Whopper hamburger with savory donuts in place of buns. Its name is a play on the Hebrew word for donuts, sufganiyot, which are ubiquitous on every Israeli street corner in the weeks leading up to Chanukah. The burger "proves that miracles still happen," Burger King Israel said in a Facebook post, a reference to the miracles at the heart of the holiday story. The... Full story
By Barry Sieger "My Jewish Roots" Workshops, sponsored by the Jewish Genealogical Society of Orlando (JGSGO), continues in January with the workshop: "Native Country Research." About 15 years ago, I started a serious quest to pursue my genealogic heritage. I knew relatively little about my father, who died when I was 6 (I am 75 now). I began the search with him, inserting his name in the Ellis Island Records search box. His ship manifest promptly came up, listing his date of immigration, his... Full story
ISRAEL21c—When Avram Hershko was a post-doc fellow at the University of California in San Francisco from 1969 to 1971, he made an unexpected discovery that led to his receiving the 2004 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. The professor at the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology tells ISRAEL21c that he was interested in examining the mechanism that causes protein degradation in living cells. He assumed it had to do with running out of energy. Surprisingly, his experiments revealed the opposite: Proteins need energy to fall apart. “It was ser... Full story
We all mourn... I received this during last month from the World Jewish Congress (WJC) digest and pass it along in part to you: "World Jewish Congress president Ambassador Ronald S. Lauder remembered former Israeli president and prime minister Shimon Peres, who passed away on Sept. 28 at the age of 93, as 'one of the greatest human beings I have ever known, an astute statesman, a great intellectual and strategist, a seasoned diplomat and a peace-maker. He did Israel proud, and he made Jews in... Full story
(The Nosher via JTA)-I grew up in a traditional Jewish home eating my mom's cholent, which had been my grandma's recipe. It was always one of my favorite meals; I often chose it for birthday dinners and special occasions. When I moved out, I took the recipe with me-but decided it was time to modernize it a bit and make it my own. I've always loved food packed with flavor, and I'm a big fan of Mexican food, so I decided to take the family cholent recipe and reimagine it with influences of carne a... Full story
Doron Shafir, Paramedic United Hatzalah On Thursday, Nov. 24, Israel's national volunteer emergency medical services (EMS) organization United Hatzalah mobilized over 600 volunteers from around the country to assist fire and rescue teams with evacuations and firefighting across the country. During the rescue and evacuation operations in Haifa, one United Hatzalah volunteer paramedic, Doron Shafir, had his own home catch fire while he was helping others evacuate from their homes and buildings.... Full story
ISRAEL21c-Emoticons such as smiley faces are really helpful in expressing your tone in an email, post or text message. Emojis such as a thumbs-up are great for expressing ideas without even typing a word. Yet even with all the options loaded into your messaging apps, sometimes you can't find exactly the right icon to get across your mood or concept. That's why so many apps offer create-your-own emojis including some with the faces of pop stars. But why use their faces when you can use your own?... Full story
Berlin hotel anti-Israel?... I read this recently in the World Jewish Congress (WJC) digest and pass it along to you in its entirety: "A well-known luxury hotel in Berlin denied claims that it had deliberately omitted Israel in its phone directory due to concerns of its Arab guests. French Jewish filmmaker, Claude Lanzmann, who directed the Holocaust documentary 'Shoah', wrote an op-ed in the French newspaper 'Le Figaro' and the German daily 'Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung' in which he claimed... Full story
The TCS New York City Marathon is nothing short of extraordinary. The marathon (branded TCS New York City Marathon and formerly branded ING New York City Marathon for sponsorship reasons) is an annual marathon that courses through the five boroughs of New York City. It is the largest marathon in the world. Running along-side 50,000 runners from across the world is an experience like none other. On Nov. 6, 2016, Rachel Zimmerman ran the five boroughs as part of Team Lifeline. Zimmerman, along... Full story
ISRAEL21c-Celebrity endorsements are a big boon for brands. Just ask SodaStream, the Israeli company touted by Hollywood beauty Scarlett Johansson and "Game of Thrones" star Thor Bjornsson. Ask HOT, the Israeli telecom for which Portuguese soccer star Cristiano Ronaldo filmed a funny TV commercial. But other stars support Israeli startups with their dollars rather than their faces, or sometimes with both. Today's celebs no longer look down on techies, explains Gil Eyal, founder of Tel Aviv- and... Full story
"Max Baer and Barney Ross: Jewish Heroes of Boxing" by Jeffrey Sussman (Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield, $36.) Jewish boxers? Somehow, Jews as boxers sounds like a contradiction in terms, or a comical misprint, perhaps a racist joke. Jews, generally, are depicted as a gentle people who would choose to resolve a conflict with wit and tongue rather than with brawn and a right cross. But this is a flawed reading of history. The bravery and tenacity of the Jewish people, especially as heroic... Full story
Not surprising... My spouse was an aerospace engineer who worked on Gemini 4 thru Apollo 16. I was even invited to NASA for Apollo 12 and sat near former President Nixon and his Secret Service detail. I read this recently in the Weizmann Institute of Science digest and pass it along to you: "On July 4, 2016, a long-anticipated milestone was reached: the Juno spacecraft arrived at Jupiter. It's goal: revealing the secrets of the planet, our solar system and how they were formed. It took almost... Full story
NEW YORK (JTA)-After Brett Parker's great-grandfather fled the pogroms in Europe and came to the United States, he opened a drug store where he sold comic books. Each week he would give his grandson, Parker's father, five comic books to take home. Growing up during the early years of Superman instilled in Parker's dad a lifelong love of comics, many of them written by Jews, that he passed on to his son. "Imagine if he kept them," Parker said laughing, picturing the first editions of Superman... Full story
Ron J. Hutter has written a provocative, entertaining, and thoughtful novel that explores the problem of anti-Semitism in a very original way. In "The trombone man: tales of a misogynist," he uses misogyny both as a protest about the treatment of women in various parts of the world and as a metaphor for what the late scholar Robert Wistrich called "the longest hatred," anti-Semitism. Based on some actual events, "The trombone man" takes aim at populism, political correctness and hypocritical... Full story
NEW YORK (JTA)-Nick Kroll is serious, which is a tad unusual for a man who has largely made his living by being funny. But being funny for reporters isn't his job, he tells JTA in a telephone interview. "My job is just to answer your questions," Kroll said. "Trying to be funny is tricky. You end up saying things that look different in print. My goal is to produce content that's funny, not be funny in interviews." Kroll, of course, has been creating funny content for a dozen years, most famously... Full story
For those interested in their family history, the "My Jewish Roots" series of 10 monthly hands-on genealogy workshops is being held by the Jewish Genealogy Society of Greater Orlando (JGSGO). These workshops are being co-hosted by The Roth Family JCC, Rosen JCC, UCF Hillel, Congregation Ohev Shalom, and Temple Israel in rotation at their facilities and also joinable over the Internet. The December Workshop topic is "Conduct USA based Research." The following is one of my stories of finding... Full story
(The Nosher via JTA)-Are you a deli roll lover? You know deli roll-the beloved Jewish American dish where various deli meats and Russian dressing get all wrapped up inside puff pastry for a guilt-inducing Shabbat lunch dish. It's almost like a deli sandwich-knish hybrid. I never grew up eating deli roll, but when I tried it at a friend's house many years ago, I simultaneously thought: This is so unhealthy, yet I just want more. And so it was just a matter of time before I worked on my own... Full story
Germany pays tribute... I read this in a recent edition of the World Jewish Congress (WJC) digest. I never heard this before, a very touching piece of history and I pass it along to you: "Germany's Foreign Office and the Centrum Judaicum Berlin held an event to honor Jose Arturo Castellanos Contreras, El Salvador's consul-general in Geneva who during World War II helped to save tens of thousands of Jews from Central Europe from Nazi persecution by providing them with false papers of Salvadoran... Full story
As I pulled into Myrtle Rutberg's driveway at the house she has lived in for 30-some years, her son, Gerald, greeted me at my car. "My mother likes visitors to come in through the front door," he said as he led me to the front porch. Myrtle's dear friend Karnine greeted me at the door. Karnine stays with Myrtle and their relationship is like a mother and daughter. Myrtle was standing on her back patio, gazing out into her backyard. She wore a royal blue dress. Her straight white hair was combed... Full story
